Department of "What have you got to lose"--Over at Mediabistro, poet & blogger Caroline Hagood has a great post on why you should write that first novel anyway. Here’s a quote:

“The worst that will happen is that your novel will be forced to endure the writer’s spring cleaning, taking up residence in the sock drawer with the sobering knowledge that the socks are more likely to get a publishing contract. Just remember the old adage that the first novel is meant to function as a sort of lubrication for the next tome to come shooting out of the writing mind.”